Disc drive memory systems have been used in computers for many years for storage of digital information. Information is recorded on concentric tracks of a magnetic disc medium, the actual information being stored in the forward magnetic transitions within the medium. The discs themselves are rotatably mounted on a spindle, while the information is accessed by read/write heads generally located on a pivoting arm which moves radially over the surface of the rotating disc. The read/write heads or transducers must be accurately aligned with the storage tracks on the disk to ensure proper reading and writing of information.
During operation, the discs are rotated at very high speeds within an enclosed housing using an electric motor generally located inside the hub or below the discs. Such known spindle motors typically have had a spindle mounted by two ball bearing systems to a motor shaft disposed in the center of the hub. The bearings are spaced apart, with one located near the top of the spindle and the other spaced a distance away. These bearings allow support of the spindle or hub about the shaft, and allow for a stable rotational relative movement between the shaft and the spindle or hub while maintaining accurate alignment of the spindle and shaft. The bearings themselves are normally lubricated by highly refined grease or oil.
As a result, the bearing assembly which supports the storage disk is of critical importance. A typical bearing assembly of the prior art comprises ball bearings supported between a pair of bearing spacers which allow a hub of a storage disk to rotate relative to a fixed member. However, ball bearing assemblies have many mechanical problems such as wear, run-out and manufacturing difficulties. Moreover, resistance to operating shock and vibration is poor because of lacking damping.
An alternative bearing design is a fluid dynamic bearing. In a fluid dynamic bearing, lubricating fluid such as air or liquid provides a bearing surface between a fixed member of the housing (e.g., the shaft) and a rotating member which supports the disk hub. Typical lubricants include oil or similar hydrodynamic fluids. Fluid dynamic bearings spread the bearing interface over a large surface area in comparison with a ball bearing assembly, which comprises a series of point interfaces. This is desirable because the increased bearing surface reduces wobble and run-out between the rotating and fixed members. Further, the use of fluid in the interface area imparts damping effects to the bearing which helps to reduce non-repeatable run-out. It is also known that the stiffness to power ratio is a primary way of measuring the efficiency of the spindle bearing assembly. Most known fluid dynamic bearings today in commercial use are made with oil as the fluid which is maintained in the gap between the two relatively rotating surfaces. This maintains the stiffness of the bearing, that is the resistance to shock and vibration; however, because of the relatively high viscosity of such fluids at lower temperatures, such as at startup, considerable power is consumed to establish and maintain high speed rotation.
In these types of bearings, a lubricating fluid, i.e., gas, liquid or air is used in the active bearing region to generate fluid dynamic pressure to prevent metal to metal contact.
The bearing region comprises two relatively rotating surfaces, at least one of which supports or has defined thereon pattern of grooves. The grooves collect fluid in the active bearing region. When the two surfaces of the bearing rotate relative to one another, a pressure profile is created in the gap due to hydrodynamic action. This profile establishes a stabilizing force so that the bearing surfaces rotate freely without contact. In a disc drive, the rotating surface is associated with a hub supporting one or more discs whose rotation and axial location is kept stable by the pressure profile.
The tangential forces created in the bearing area characterize the bearing with respect to changes in shear in the fluid and are summed up in torque, which in turn defines power consumption. The pressure profile defines all forces normal to the bearing surface which characterize the bearing with respect to axial load and radial and angular restoring forces and movement.
A specific fluid dynamic bearing design can be characterized by multiple qualities, including power consumption, damping, stiffness, stiffness ratios and restoring forces and moments.
The design of the fluid dynamic bearing is adapted to enhance the stiffness and damping of the rotating system, which includes one or more discs rotating at very high speed. Stiffness is the changing force element per changing distance or gap; damping is the change force element per changing rate of distance or gap. Optimizing these measures reduces non-repeatable run out (NRRO), an important measure of disc drive performance.
A further critical issue is the need to maintain the stiffness of the hydrodynamic bearing. The stiffer the bearing, the higher the natural frequencies in the radial and axial direction, so that the more stable is the track of the disc being rotated by a spindle on which reading and writing must occur. Thus the stiffness of the bearing in the absence of any mechanical contact between its relatively rotating parts becomes critical in the design of the bearing so that the rotating load can be stably and accurately supported on the spindle without wobble or tilt. Typically two dynamic bearings are provided spaced apart along the shaft. The problem becomes to damp out the discs response to radial excitation which otherwise creates non-repeatable run out.